Countering Stug IV that hides after infantry

[21st Army Group]

Hello,

I am a newbie of Combat Mission and I thought I could take of my friend after bitting the AI in hard mode. However, he beat me easily in the first 2 games. I was Polish and Canadian in the first 2 games and he was of course German. The tactic he used was using cheap infantry to scout and attack my position (inside the building). Behind his infantry, he employed 5 or 6 Stug IV to kick out my defence position. PIATs rendered useless because his infantry was able to supress or eliminate them everytime. If I put tanks or AT guns in front of my infantry, it would be suicide. He suggested me to put mine in his "expected" attack route. Please offer suggestions. Thanks in advance.

[This message has been edited by 21st Army Group (edited 02-23-2001).]

[This message has been edited by 21st Army Group (edited 02-23-2001).]

[109 Gustav]

Put your AT assets with your infantry line, not in front of it. Hide all of your troops for as long as possible to lure him in to close range. When he gets in close, spring an AT gun on one of his tanks. If the tank is buttoned, it won't have a clue where the fire is coming from for two shots, and by then, he's dead. If your opponet gets StuGs all the time, get lots of veteran 57mm AT guns, they're death on anything smaller than a panther.

Use a few AT mines on key chokepoints to control the direction of his attack. Don't go hog wild on buying mines, their 10 or 15 points is tempting, but three fields of AT mines should be enough.

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[Wisbech_lad]

Use light arty (on board 3" with indirect spotting or 3" FO) to disrupt the infantry.

It won't kill them, but if they are "cheap" (Regular/ green) it will drive them to seek cover.

This will slow up the advance, he either has to wait for the infantry to regroup, or advance with less infantry cover.

[Peter White]

A medium machine gun with a good field of view, preferably in a building, will slow down his infantry and tempt him to bring forward a tank or two. If you can anticipate the route of approach and hide an AT gun in some trees behind the MG, you can pop his tank.

Of course a MG + AT gun is hardly an insoluble problem with infantry alone, so you will need to hide some supporting infantry of your own. Don't give away their position too early or they may be casually routed by HE shells from the tanks.

Beware that if you cluster your defenses, a savvy player will hit you with artillery, HE or smoke.

I would guess your opponent's success with a simple infantry screen plus cheap tanks will guarantee he will pursue those tactics until you punish him for it.

Consider also splitting some squads and spacing them on a treeline as bait. A number of "Infantry?" bogeys will also tempt him to push forward his tanks to soften them up before cleaning out the area with infantry.

[CavScout]

Try defending on the reverse side of a hill or behind some terrain that prevents long range support from assault guns. Force him to get within striking range with his armor or force him to send in his infantry alone.

[Pak40]

Originally posted by CavScout:

Try defending on the reverse side of a hill or behind some terrain that prevents long range support from assault guns. Force him to get within striking range with his armor or force him to send in his infantry alone.

What CavScout said. AT guns and tanks should be behind your infantry but within LOS of the ground that the enemy will attack over.

Another technique is to drop lots of smoke (use 81mm offboard or 75mm ofboard) between his infantry and Stugs. If you time it right when his infantry are attacking, you will block the LOS of the stugs but your infantry will have clean shots at his infantry.

Another option(if you're American) is to use M8s and M18s. Actually use these in an offensive roll (even if you are on defense). The vehicles are fast and can fire well when on the move. When he shows his stugs, release your M8s or M18s all at once. Drive towardsd his Stugs, being sure to avoid his infantry. You may need to take a flanking route to do this. The real key here is to NEVER STOP OR GO SLOW, only go FAST! His Stugs have no turrets and will have a hard time locking onto your tanks. The M8s will need to get flank or rear shots but the M18s are deadly anywhere. Keep both M8s and M18s away from 20mm or 37mm AA guns.

[Mlapanzer]

And keep thoose M-18 spread out a bit so one lucky spotting round doesn't take out 2 of them at once

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[Firefly]

Next time play as the Brits and buy a couple of Churchill VIIs - they eat Stugs for breakfast and will have his infantry for afters. It's highly unlikekly that the Stugs will do much damage to them.

All the other suggestions are worth taking notice of too.

[This message has been edited by Firefly (edited 02-24-2001).]

[Matt the Paladin]

I would also reccomend hitting the Stugs from more than one angle at once. Since they don't have turrets it'll be easy to take them out. The Hellcat would be an excellent tank to exploit the Stugs lack of a turret with.

It might also be a good idea to buy a halftrack or two and use them to mop up any infantry that strays out of the Stug's firing area.

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[Guest Rommel22]

Hey,

His opponent is me!!! He is getting better, but doing the same mistakes over and over again. He won't play for the Amricans or Brits ( I told him to to buy better equipmnet) but he says when he looses he does not want to discrase the American or British armies. Oh well, I am sure with your guy's help he will get the best of me soon!

He bought a fighter-bomber once, I had 4 HT's and the plane took em' all out, i was freakin' pissed! Still won though!!

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[MC]

My opponent is big on the TD's but he likes the Hetzers and Pz IV/70's. I used to like the Jacksons, but this time I bought 2 Hellcats, and damn those things are fast. Like Pak/40 soid, keep 'em moving, they are hard for turretless TD's to target, and the same for Tigers also. If you can get behind a hill, they are so fast if you move them out of sight and pop them up in different places you can get your opponent to think you have 3 or 4 instead of 2 if you do it right.

[Mlapanzer]

The tactic MC suggest was Taught and used very often by both TD's and Shermans and works in CM also. Works very well when defending in a village with the diffent LOS caused by the buildings.

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